Foster care children face daunting achievement gap

Foster Care children in California do worse in school than their peers, dropout twice as often and are more likely to be enrolled in failing schools. That’s the takeaway from a new study that will be released today. It finds that thousands of California students in foster care have suffered greater levels of emotional trauma than their peers, which is a significant impediment to academic success. L.A. County has more than 12,500 public school students in foster care – the most in the state…An explosive device made out of dry ice detonated in a bathroom at LAX last night, but no one was injured. The FBI is investigating. The blast just happened to come the same day that a new law was signed expanding the powers of L.A. Airport Police. Under the new law, those officers can now seize explosives, guns and other deadly weapons and remove unsafe vehicles from the street…

800. That’s how many bills Gov. Jerry Brown signed after a prolific year by the state Legislature. Brown also vetoed 98 bills that crossed his desk this year. Among other signings, Brown approved a bill that protects against false confessions by minors in criminal cases; another that extends a requirement that insurance companies cover behavioral health treatment for autistic kids; and another that outlaws the commercial trapping of bobcats next to national and state parks and other wildlife areas…And finally, the Dodgers will try to dig themselves out of a hole tonight as they host the St, Louis Cardinals in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers lost both games to the Cards this weekend and trail two games to none in the best-of-seven series. The Dodgers scored just two runs in the two games in St. Louis.